FBI Director Christopher Wray insisted he is ‘absolutely not’ working to protect the Biden family as he claimed the agency has not been politicized during a face-off with Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee.
GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz displayed a text message allegedly sent by Hunter Biden where the president’s son wrote to a Chinese Communist Party official Henry Zhao on July 30, 2017 demanding money for a business deal.
‘I’m sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment has not been fulfilled,’ Hunter allegedly wrote at the time. ‘You will regret not following my direction. I am waiting for the call with my father.’
‘You seem deeply uncurious about it— almost suspiciously uncurious. Are you protecting the Bidens?’ Gaetz asked Wray.
‘Absolutely not,’ said the FBI director.
‘Sounds like a shakedown, doesn’t it Director? You won’t answer the question and everyone know why you won’t answer because to the millions of people seeing this, they know it is a shakedown.’
‘People trusted the FBI more when J. Edgar Hoover was running the place than when you are,’ Gaetz went on.
‘In your home state of Florida, the number of people applying to come work for us … is up over 100% since I started,’ Wray shot back.
‘They deserve better than you,’ said Gaetz.
Gaetz and other Republicans also tore into Wray for the FBI’s unlawful uses of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Section 702 under FISA allows U.S. federal intelligence agencies to conduct targeted searches of foreigners, but sometimes Americans are improperly searched in the process. The provision is set to expire by the end of the year.
The FBI admitted to using FISA to run queries 204,000 times in 2022 on American citizens, from January 6 protesters to BLM demonstrators.
‘People were looking themselves up, looking their ex-lovers up, using the FISA process as their creepy personal snoop machine,’ said Gaetz.
Wray said there have been instances of ‘disciplinary action’ for improper use of the warrantless search process.
At the end of the year, Congress must decide whether to reauthorize Section 702 and Republicans have said they will not do so without major changes.
GOP Rep. Ken Buck took a less combative tone while expressing his own concerns with FISA.
‘You’re still a registered Republican and I hope you don’t change your party affiliation after this hearing is over,’ he told Wray. ‘I want to thank you for leading an agency that protects Americans from foreign terrorists.
Read More: Are you protecting the Bidens?
